First up this week, Ryan O’Connor author of “First Green Wave: Pollution Probe and the Origins of Environmental Activism in Ontario”. Before there was Greenpeace, Environmental Defence, Ecojustice, Sierra Club or any other of the hundreds of large and small environmental organizations in Canada today there was Pollution Probe. Started by a few students and faculty at the University of Toronto back in 1969, Pollution Probe but environmental protection and activism on the map with a series of small and big wins protecting Canadians from burning rivers, toxic smokestacks and rampant litter. Ryan walks us through an outline of his book on the history of Pollution Probe and comments on the contrast between 1970’s environmentalism in Canada and today.

You can also read the forward to his book by Graeme Wynn (Pollution Probe veteran) here.

Second up, Stefan and Kevin provide some background and context from California and BC on cap and trade/carbon tax with the announcement of Ontario joining California and Quebec in a cap and trade system.

Lastly we talk to Jo Royle, Officer for the Pew Charitable Trusts with the Global Ocean Legacy program about the very recent announcement by the UK government to approve the Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve which is now the worlds largest fully protected marine space. We talk to Jo about the importance of protecting ocean space, the implicit difficultly of getting people and governments to care about something they almost never see or think about and the value of a clean ocean in general.